My Fairytales..

Keelung City in the morning

Spelled as Keelung, pronouns as Jeelung by the locals.  I will squeeze everything in 1 post for Keelung. 

We left Taipei that very night upon our returning from Beitou.  I think I mentioned that we went to Shilin Night Market for final shopping on our way back.
We had a quick shower, check out and decided to go to Keelung by taxi.  The journey took around 2 hours and I felt asleep all the way. 

(As I'm blogging this post, I was shocked by the news of TransAsia Airways aircraft that crashed into a river in Taipei. The fuselage is now half-submerged in the Keelung River. What a coincidence..)

As per my itinerary, we will visit Jinguashi and Jiufen that day.  There are several way to go to Jinguashi and I decided we go by train from Keelung Train Station in the itinerary.  Upon checking with the hotel receptionist, we were informed that the bus stop to Jinguashi is only a few meters away from our hotel.  By bus it is!!!

Jinguashi - Gold Ecological Park

The view along the journey to Jinguashi

Before entering the mines

My favourite alley

Jiufen Old Street

Not my favourite as the place was packed!

Glass noodle soup

These are actually handmade music toy. My colleague asked me to get 2 for her son

We had dessert break at this restaurant. Really can't stand the heat and I felt suffocated as it was so crowded. Please avoid going to Jiufen during the weekend. Nothing much to see after that, we decided to go back to Keelung city earlier as planned.

I didn't even try this. I hate red beans

Over priced tiramisu

Keelung Miaokou Night Market

Keelung Night Market is famous for their seafood so we decided give it a try.  There are nearly 100 stalls to choose from and the crowd was 3 times than any night market in Taipei!!  We really had a hard time walking.

Urchin

I nearly fainted when I saw those gigantic frogs!! hahahhahahahhaha

After a few consideration, we choose a decent stall operated by an old couple. They sell normal seafood, not the as exotic as we saw earlier.














All 5 dishes that cost us RM300++ !!! Damn expensive for a stall and the taste was so so only.  Not sure if that uncle purposely overcharged us as he knew we are the tourist.  That was it for that night. Would love to try any dessert but we were too full.

We check out after breakfast the next morning and took a taxi to the airport

Final pose in Keelung

Taipei International Airport

 

Bye Bye Taipei!!

The day I've been waiting for was finally arrived!  Xinbeitou, a place that really caught my heart when I did my research on Taipei. 

How to get to Beitou :
The MRT red (Xindian-Danshui/Nanshijiao-Beitou) lines both stop at Beitou MRT station. From Beitou station a one-station branch line runs to Xin Beitou station, which is near the hot springs area.
From the Xinbeitou MRT station, you can either walk or take a bus to the nearby attractions.  We choose to walk as the weather was a bit chilly during our stay in Taipei.

Beitou Town

The guide map

The Hot Spring Museum. Free entrance and there were class going on in the hall

One of the public bath.  I can't remember how much is the entrance fee as I passed on this.

One of the beautiful building in Beitou Hot Spring Park

Left a love note

Qinshui Park was developed as a hot spring resort by the Japanese during their occupation era on 1895 - 1945 and is known as Beitou Hot Springs Park now.  You can see beautiful European-Japanese style buildings everywhere.


Beitou Thermal Valley also known as Ghost Lake

This place remind me of Owakudani in Hakone, Japan

The greens around the park

We didn't stay long at the valley as I can't really stand the sulfuric atmosphere.  The springs here have the highest temperatures of any in the Datunshan Volcano Group. Well, that's what Mr Google said :D  We stopped at the souvenirs shop inside the Thermal Valley to buy something for families and friends, had an ice-cream on our way back to Beitou Town.

Our next destination was Zhuzihu, the field of white calla lily flowers. Situated within Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei City, Zhuzihu Scenic Spot is at the intersection of Zhuzi Lake and Yangjin Highway.

How to go to Zhuzihu :
By bus :  Take bus route red 5(紅5), 109 to reach Zhuzihu directly

I never had the feeling to get a nice cup of hot latte at as much as when I saw this.  Not sure why

Would like to share a video on the journey to the mountain but I hope you guys don't get dizzy.  This one is pretty decent actually compared to others. The bus ride was quite rough and I felt like we were on a roller coaster ride. We survived the bloody murder bus ride eventually and the scenery was spectacular! Those photos didn't do them justice thought.  The real experienced was way more beautiful than what captured. I'm glad we included Zhuzihu in our itinerary.

Those shoes are only RM18!  They are definitely coming back with us

We caught the bus back to Beitou Town at the same exact bus stop we disembarked earlier.  Bought our early dinner at Family Mart and had them at Starbucks in Beitou.  We decided to head to Shilin Night Market after that for some last minutes shopping.  By this time, I will vomit blood if I see another night market. Toooooo much of night market!!